Thursday, April 26, 2012

Two girls - Writing Challenge Piece

I told him about the twins in confidence. I found them in the neglected patch of Mrs. Cellar's rose garden, out behind the gazebo.

"I don't want anyone to know I was back there," I said, blushing.

"Who cares?" Caleb said. "Andy isn't going to tell his mom. Even if he does--"

He didn't have to finish his sentence. Andy's mom was weird. She hired me to prune her flowers, and sometimes I caught her peeking at me through the slit in the curtains.

"Do you think they're hers?" he asked.

"I don't know," I said. "Probably."

Mrs. Cellar used to be normal, but then Andy's sister drowned. It was the Fourth of July; in the lake at Yellow Creek State Park. Everybody crowded around as the lifeguard dragged her body to shore. Andy's mom just crouched in the sand, howling like a wounded coyote.

Soon after that, she started doing strange things, like rooting around in people's garbage at night and showing up at the grocery store with her shirt unbuttoned and opened.

"What were you doing there so late?" Caleb asked.

I didn't want to tell him. Flynn Collins and I were... well, we wanted someplace quiet to talk. I climbed out of my window and he smelled really good. I was only going to let him kiss me. The only place I could think of was the gazebo.

When we got there, though, pulling up in the alley with our headlights off, we saw Mrs. Cellar, in a white nightgown, kind of muttering to herself and digging.

"How long do you think they've been buried?" Caleb asked.

I didn't know. They were sort of skeletal, with shrunken brown skin like a dried banana peel, but their clothes were okay. They were barely even dirty; matching pink dresses with lace. Two girls. They were holding hands.

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This post is an entry at Trifecta Writing Challenge.
The deal is that you have to write a piece using the third definition
of a given word in 33 -333 words. You should give it a try, too and
link up here. This week's word is trail.